Katherine Heigl Is Not as Bad as You Think (Seriously)

We weren’t planning on becoming a big Katherine Heigl defender. After all, our hatred for her character Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy reaches such apoplectic proportions that we’re surprised we haven’t thrown a glass through our television screen by now. (Oh the horror of seeing Heigl-as-Izzie in cancer patient makeup and a bald cap last season!) But the abuse the outspoken starlet has gotten in recent weeks is just too much for us to bear. Simply, we’re tired of the haters!

What really pushed us over the top was an interview that Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow did with Howard Stern (yes, he does still exist!), where the two men commented on the now-18-month-old Vanity Fair cover story where Ms. Heigl called Knocked Up a “little sexist” and said that it “paint[ed] the women as shrews.” Mr. Apatow is apparently still holding a grudge, saying, “[You think] at some point I’ll get a call saying, ‘Sorry, I was tired,’ and then the call never comes.” Meanwhile Mr. Rogen commented that Ms. Heigl is prone to saying some “batshit things” about her various acting jobs. Not to rehash an old story—like Mr. Stern happily did—but are we really still under the impression that what Ms. Heigl said about Knocked Up was inaccurate? From the perma-bitchface that Leslie Mann affects for the entire film to, oh, the entire premise, everything in that movie feels a little too boys clubby, it’s hilarious nature notwithstanding. Perhaps Messrs. Apatow and Rogen should pull an Entourage and pop the Blu-ray in at some point in the next month.

Of course, the “batshit things” that Mr. Rogen was referring to also had to do with Grey’s Anatomy, which Ms. Heigl has done nothing but bury in the press for the better part of a year. And again, isn’t the star saying what everyone has thought about that show for a long time: It sucks! The longer Ms. Heigl stays on Grey’s, the more apparent it is that she’s only doing so for the ridiculous paycheck she cashes. Yet, something tells us she isn’t the only person in America doing a job they hate for money. If anything, we should praise Ms. Heigl for her honesty. And obviously, that’s her problem: People simply hate honesty. So Ms. Heigl is painted as a shrew or a bitch and someone who is prone to saying “batshit” things—y’know, like the truth—just because she speaks her mind. In reality, though, she’s more like the rest of us then we care to admit: Opinionated, judging and vindictive. Ms. Heigl might not be the America’s Sweetheart we want, but she’s the America’s Sweetheart we deserve.